Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang : Discussion Thread

[Trisha]

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

[Trisha]

Please remember this is a discussion thread!

** Spoilers might be listed so read carefully
** Please use Spoiler Tags to hide spoiler comments!!

[Trisha]

Through Book 1

(view spoiler)[ I like these four
I feel like we don't have a lot of information about this silver stuff yet but I'm intrigued to know more.

but who is this mysterious guy? and I hate that all these kids were ripped from their homes and shoved in to this. Robin has had a really rough time. I hope these 4 remain friends (although it sounds ominous) (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha]

Through Book 2

that was a chore . I can't say I'm liking this one

(view spoiler)[ I don't much care for his day to day life. his struggle to get philosophical with characters of language. It's all grueling to get through

and I think the details are dampening the horrors of what's really going on. Robin's day to day boring life is covering the how horrible it was to bring him there, the terror the girls are going through and the other students.

I don't blame him for pushign back on Griffin either. Griffin needs to sort himself out. He doesn't look professional right now, he looks like the losing side. I wouldn't want to be caught on his side as the cards are shuffling out either, even as wrong as that is. Griffin needs to get his side sorted . The only thing that made him BETTER than those he's pushing again is his compassion and humanity and he isn't showing either of those things to Robin. . . (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha]

Through Book 3

(view spoiler)[ I find this book to be very very slow. I don't like the long rambes of side information

I wonder what they will do now that he is dead
I didn't think Anthony was dead (especially after Robin saw him) but interesting that he pulled in the 2 friends

I wonder what now (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha]

Through Book 4

(view spoiler)[ that one was brutal. Letty's betrayal. Ramy's death.
Griffin's horrible death. I can't believe they thought they'd get away with killing the teacher but WOW the response has been equally brutal. I wonder if Anthony and the rest are really dead.

and I wonder if Robin will burn it down (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha]

and I'm done

While I liked this one - I thought it was too long. I lost the message somewhere in the long pages of breaking down languange and the day to day details of dorm/high school life.

(view spoiler)[ I was surprised, in the end, who stayed in the building. I don't blame Robin for getting mad and wanted to burn it all down. I was so glad he took that tower down, because I thought that was the only way to finish it too - crash the way it was working to even the playing field. but wow, to lose so many

and I'm still so sad/mad about Letty. She never got it.

I wish we'd gotten to know what was the in the letter from Griffin and who the 3 were. I guess maybe we'll get another book that is the starting story? (hide spoiler)]

[Ilsen]

I finished this one recently and I had sorta the same experience as you. While I liked the concept, it was just dragged on for way too long.

(view spoiler)[ I don’t mind a school setting but full paragraphs of linguistic classes and Robin going back and forth between serving the Revolution or being against it and supporting Babel just made me so bored and frustrated. Although I didn’t really care about anything until the Professor’s death.

I did like the parallels between Griffin’s group and Robin’s group that was explained in the side notes. I just wish we actually got to see it from Griffin himself. Maybe I would have cared about him more. And yea when Letty betrays them, it did hurt but also frustrated me that Letty was so caught up in her delusion that the Empire is good even when she sees the hurt that has caused. I also thought that Anthony and the other group would come back but alas they did not.

I wish the author ended on Robin’s chapter and burning down the building because that last line was more impactful than Victoire. The title makes more sense after reading it. Also the author said this was a stand-alone and honestly it doesn’t need anything else. While the information is important, it just felt like such a sludge to get through. I’m just sad that I didn’t love it as much as others did. (hide spoiler)]